A site for all of my own DIY project successes and failures and for posting all of the amazing tutorials and projects I find as I go - while staying on a budget and keeping as much money in my pocket as possible!

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Sunday, February 3, 2013

Having a Spring / Easter / ANY party? Love cake stand DIYs? Shaken Together's blog has an absolutely adorable mini cake stand that we don't think they could have made easier if they had tried! We love the simplicity, but the beauty of this project.

Here they are in action - sorry, this was the first picture I could find without digging out my CD of hundreds of pictures!

We
made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with home made buttercream and
offered chocolate jimmies, green sugar, coconut and mini chocolate chips
... it was a hit!

These
would be sweet made with thrift store finds for a Mothers' Day tea,
heritage dishes for an anniversary party or fun brightly colored mix
& match plates and bowls for your kiddo's birthday party ... use the
coffee mugs and salad/dessert plates for smaller cake stands with a
little more quirky character :) The best part is that they can be
whipped up in a pinch and stored easily!Hope you were inspired to {try
this}! And hope you want to hang around a while! There are lots of
ways to follow along ... check out my side bar. I'm hosting a weekly
Pinterest link party, too - scroll up to the top to stop by this week's
party! And I'll be sharing the amazing brownie recipe pictured above in the very near future ... you definitely don't want to miss it!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

So spring is just around the corner and we cannot wait. Hoosier Homemade's blog has just the DIY project to get us going on spring related projects so we can be ready to roll!

This one is a "Spring" decor idea that brings color and happiness to any room! Be sure to check out their blog for more DIY.

I just love how it turned out! Doug did an AMAZING job on it…don’t you think?

The concept for the scrapbook paper being applied to the wood is similar to the St. Patrick’s Day Door Hanging
we made, but the letters were a little curved on the edge, so Doug had
to cut out the paper before applying it to the wood. It was a little
more time consuming, but well worth it.

And we couldn’t help but take pictures outside in the beautiful Spring weather we have!

Let’s gather our supplies…

Spring Craft Supplies:

Wood – We used a piece of baseboard from our local molding outlet (length will depend on how many letters)

Letters

Scrapbook paper

White paint for the edges of the letters

Pre-stain and stain for the wood

Spray adhesive to apply paper {not pictured}

Wood Preparation:

Cut your wood to length. Doug cut this piece, 5 inches longer than what we needed, leaving 2 1/2 inches on each end.

Using a rag, apply the pre-stain. Pre-stain is needed when staining
soft or porous types of wood to prevent the finish from being blotchy.

Let sit 15-20 minutes to allow to soak in, wipe off any excess.

Apply stain evenly with a foam brush and allow to sit for 5-10
minutes depending how dark you want the final product to be, carefully
wipe and excess stain off. {We used a combination stain/polyurethane
product to speed up the process}

Letter Preparation:

Slightly sand the edges of the letters with 180 grit or finer sand paper. {the higher the number the finer the grit}

Paint the edges (2 coats) we used a satin latex that we had on our
shelf {the washers are just to keep the letters up off the drop cloth}

Glue a small block of wood to the back side of the letters to give more area to glue to base.

Trace the letter onto the back of the scrapbook paper and cut out

Decorating the Letters:

Spray the back side of the paper with adhesive and carefully adhere to the wood letters

To attach the letters to the wood, use a hot glue gun {note: Doug
tried wood glue and even super glue, but the glue gun worked the best}

I was recently asked to design a few all occasion invitations and favor ideas for the entertaining section of HGTV’s website.
Both stories just went live, so you can download these fun, easy
printables for any event! Available in pink, orange, lemon, lime, aqua
or black. The invitations for free download are fill-in invitations. If
you would like the text customized, they will be available in our shop!

I designed coordinating favor tags in two shapes. Our regular party circle size, as well a rectangular version.

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About Me

I'm an MBA student with a lot on her mind. I am a rabid foodie, an art enthusiast, a crafting novice and a lover of our planet. I have several blogs on various topics that should pique just about anyone's interest - so check them out!